Page 23 of Say it Ain’t So

Just. Like. Always.

With a sigh, I turned around and walked into the living room.

“Hey, kid.”

That pit in my stomach twisted into a knot.

Just like it always did.

In the chair in the far corner, my stepdad, Ray, reached for his prosthetic leg, something like a grimace tugging at his lips as he pulled it toward his stub. I waved him off and saw relief in his eyes as he settled back in his chair.

“Hey, Pops.” I plopped down onto the couch, putting my feet up on the coffee table, despite the fact that my mom never wanted me to.

Served her right.

“Didn’t expect to see you here so soon.”

I lifted one brow. “You were expecting me?”

Ray scrubbed a hand across his scruffy face. “Isn’t that what always happens after money mysteriously shows up in our account?”

I looked away. Scrubbed my finger against a grease stain on my pants. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That right? You don’t know anything about the ten thousand dollars that showed up in our bank account yesterday morning? You know the one. The account you set up to help Susie pay our bills?”

“It’s not Susie’s account,” I mumbled, unable to meet his gaze.

“Just cause your mom doesn’t know it exists doesn’t mean the money’s not there for her.”

I rubbed at the sore spot in my chest, wishing I could make it go away.

“I take it you had some luck out in Vegas?” Ray asked, undeterred by my silence. As usual. “That’s the only time money shows up like that.”

“A little.”

“Seems like a little more than a little. Ten thousand’s more than you’ve ever deposited before.”

I shifted on the couch, my gaze drifting toward the front door, to the wall with the age-yellowed wallpaper, the framed photo of me when I was a baby, and the only picture we had of Ray and Ma’s wedding.

“Take it, you got something else on your mind?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Spit it out, Rylan,” he drawled. He picked up his glass of Coke beside him and raised it toward his mouth. “There’s no use keeping it inside. You know you came here to tell me.”

I came here for nothing and got exactly what I expected to find.

“I got married.”

I probably could’ve waited to say that until after Ray finished taking a drink of his Coke. It probably would’ve been better for the carpet.

As Ray coughed and sputtered, I jumped up and grabbed a roll of paper towels half-under a stack of magazines on the corner of the coffee table. Ray accepted a towel from me and wiped his chin and shirt as I cleaned up the sticky liquid that sprayed all over his chair and dribbled down to the floor.

“You alright?” I reached for his used towel, but instead of handing it over, he put a hand on my arm.

“Are you alright?”

My heartbeat throbbed in my throat. I swallowed hard, trying to clear away the thickness there, then tried to blink away the blurriness in my vision. I gave a minute shake of my head, snagging Ray’s towel before turning back to the couch.